Making Meaning: Embracing Spirituality, Faith, Religion, and
Life Purpose in Student Affairs ed. by Jenny L. Small
(review)
José-Luis Riera
Journal of College Student Development, Volume 57, Number 1, January
2016, pp. 115-117 (Review)
Published by Johns Hopkins University Press
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/csd.2016.0010
For additional information about this article
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/608625
Accessed 18 Jun 2017 08:08 GMT
Book Reviews
Making Meaning: Embracing
Spirituality, Faith, Religion, and Life
Purpose in Student Affairs
Jenny L. Small (Editor)
Sterling, VA: Stylus/American College
Personnel Association, 2015, 208 pages,
$29.95
Reviewed by José-Luis Riera,
University of Delaware
Making Meaning: Embracing Spirituality,
Faith, Religion, and Life Purpose in Student
Affairs is a new resource for those interested
in learning more about the research and
practice of spirituality, faith, religion, and life
purpose within student affairs. As the work
of promoting religious and secular pluralism
on college campuses proliferates and the
work of diversity and inclusion increasingly
involves engaging these identities, Making
Meaning is poised to become a valuable
resource. This well-written, well-organized,
and accessible text goes beyond a survey
text about the literature to date; instead the
diverse collection of authors go further and
provide clear vision for how student affairs
educators can engage in deeper thought and
develop principles of practice related to this
burgeoning area of scholarship and practice.
The authors imagine ways in which the research
agenda can expand, the role of professional
associations in advancing this work ought
to grow, and propose new strategies for
practitioners to further conversations about
spirituality, faith, religion, and life purpose on
the college campus.
Chapter 1, “Introduction,” is written
by the book’s editor, Jenny L. Small, and
provides broad context for how the literature
and practice has evolved in the last 10 to 15
years as it relates to spirituality, faith, religion,
and life purpose. A unique element is that
some of the contributing authors weave their
own personal stories throughout the chapters
to illustrate how their own spiritual, faith,
and meaning making journeys have come
to bear on their careers as student affairs
educators, scholars, and practitioners. Small
introduces this approach to writing in the first
chapter, illustrating her journey as a student
within higher education and subsequently a
practitioner and scholar. The book is then
divided in three parts: Research and Theories,
Professional Associations, and Practice.
Part 1, “Research and Theories,” contains
three chapters. In chapter 2, Sam Siner,
begins to uncover how the conversation about
spirituality, faith, religion, and life purpose
developed to where it is today within student
affairs. Siner provides a retrospective of theories
beginning with Fowler’s famed 1981 theory,
which proposed stages of faith development
and continues to review theories as recent as
those published in 2011. Towards the end of
the chapter, Siner discusses what’s next for the
evolution of spiritual and faith development
theories, noting that we are still moving from
infancy to adolescence in regard to the state
of research on this topic and suggests several
new directions for more specific research in
this next decade.
In chapter 3, “A Historical and Research
Overview of Religious/Worldview Identi­fi­
cation in Higher Education,” Vivienne Felix
and Nicholas A. Bowman examine a distinct
set of the literature related to what they
call “religious/worldview identification.” In
this chapter, Felix and Bowman survey the
literature that discusses students’ identity with
a particular religious tradition or no religious
tradition. They provide a historical context of
higher education, discussing the role of religion
and the evolution of discrimination of students
identifying within minority religions. The
authors then discuss campus climate related
to spirituality and religion and conclude the
chapter with a discussion about college student
outcomes associated with religious/worldview
identification.
January 2016 ◆ vol 57 no 1115
Book Reviews
In chapter 4, “What’s So Funny About
Peace, Love and Understanding? Or, Why
Higher Education Is Finally Talking About
Faith, Belief, Meaning, and Purpose,” Tricia
A. Seifert concludes part 1 by describing
the “pendulum shift” in higher education,
with roots in religiously motivated education
to secular-grounded education in the 20th
century. Seifert weaves her personal narrative
through the chapter and concludes with
questioning whether the pendulum will remain
in a place where pluralism is valued and
students will find the space to ask life’s biggest
questions. She uses this questioning as a
springboard to posit how the research agenda,
on the broadest level, could develop to provide
more answers to the issues that surround faith,
belief, meaning, and life purpose.
Part 2 consists of two chapters whose
authors discuss the role of professional associ­
ations amidst the exploration of spiritu­
ality, faith, religion, and life purpose. They
provide both retrospective survey and forwardthinking reflection on how student affairs
professional associations have and can support
the depth and breadth of engagement for its
members around the topics of spirituality, faith,
religion, and life purpose. In chapter 5, DafinaLazarus Stewart discusses the contributions
of professional associations to research and
scholarship, professional development and
graduate preparation, and national advocacy
efforts. Stewart concludes by providing
recommendations for how pro­fessional associ­
ations can continue advanc­ing this work.
Chapter 6, “Professional Associations as
Collaborations and Support Networks for
Student Affairs Professionals,” written by
Sharon A. Lobdell, picks up where chapter
5 leaves off and is mostly forward-thinking
as Lobdell considers a variety of strategies
that professional associations could employ
to advance this work in the coming years.
Lobdell argues that professional associations
116
should be a safe place for members to explore
and enhance their own meaning making
process, while also equipping all members with
support to conduct research or provide tools to
engage students in these conversations. After
articulating critical issues that professional
associations face in regard to the work of
meaning making, Lobdell explores new
partnerships that professional associations
ought to consider and opportunities that
professional associations should pursue to
support interfaith program development.
In part 3 authors shift to discussing
practice in higher education and student affairs
as it relates to spirituality, faith, religion, and
life purpose. In chapter 7, “Campus Practice
in Support of Spirituality, Faith, Religion, and
Life Purpose: What Has Been Accomplished
and Where Do We Go Next?,” coauthors
Kathleen M. Goodman, Katie Wilson, and Z
Nicolazzo examine what has led to increased
attention to integrating issues of meaning
making into student affairs practice, present
a compelling case study, provide an overview
of campus practices, and conclude with a set
of “possibilities and provocations for student
affairs.” The case study, featuring Miami
University, illustrates how increased attention
has led to increased integration of co-curricular
programming focused on spirituality, faith,
religion, and life purpose. Citing that campus
practice is often spearheaded by an interested
or motivated individual and highlighting that
widespread organizational commitment is still
lacking on most campuses, the authors close the
chapter with a discussion of four suggestions
for enhancing and institutionalizing student
affairs practices related to spirituality, faith,
religion and life purpose.
In chapter 8, “Personal Exploration and
National Trends: The Future for Students of
All Faith Backgrounds,” Frank Shushok Jr. and
Patricia A. Perillo call attention to the unique
openness that exists on college campuses today
Journal of College Student Development
Book Reviews
of this body of work on college campuses
and by reiterating what the future holds for
further developments. Making Meaning is
comprehensive and will surely be a useful
resource for the scholar developing research in
the area of spirituality, faith, religion, and life
purpose or the practitioner considering how
to introduce or strengthen campus practices
in spiritual learning. The book serves as a great
discussion starter and thought-provoking piece
of scholarship and could function as a great
choice for a discussion group of student affairs
educators who may be questioning how to
advance the work of making meaning on their
own campuses. I fully expect that this book will
join the professional libraries of many student
affairs educators who are committed to educating
the whole student and seeking to broaden the
conversation of diversity and inclusion to include
spirituality, faith, religion, and life purpose.
for spiritual learning. Shushok and Perillo
also illustrate meaning making in practice
by sharing their own personal narratives of
their spiritual learning. Additionally, they
highlight the stories of three Virginia Tech
students and their own journeys of meaning
making while in college. One of the stories
offers a glimpse into how space for meaning
making becomes paramount in the wake
of tragedy, in this case the April 16, 2007
massacre at Virginia Tech. Building on the
assertion articulated in chapter 7 that spiritual
learning requires institutionalization in higher
education, Shushok and Perillo offer three
steps for creating new institutional structures
and partnerships toward that end.
To conclude the book, Small authors
chapter 9 and connects the past and the future,
the retrospective and the forward-thinking
by articulating a timeline of the evolution
u
January 2016 ◆ vol 57 no 1117